The Great Kings
by Bloodspill204
Summary: One-shot written for MLK Writing Contest # 20, subject: Mufasa was not the perfect king as in the movie. While the contest it was untitled, finally I named it "The Great King". Second place winner, along with OuRaion and RedKite. It was my first MLK Contest, didn't win the first place but it was just lots of fun! Enjoy.


**Mufasa was not the perfect king as in the movie**

This day didn't really differ from the others. Life in the Pridelands was static and predictable – for some it felt good, for some boring. Scar was definitely part of this second group.

Sometimes he wondered why is he still here. The one thing that kept him there was the comfort of having his piece of the ground (he slept in separate den, unlike the whole pride), enough water and food. But last time he rarely was on the Pride Rock; he had secret that no one knew. He finally found friends...if he could call them like that. They were hyenas. Scar could imagine what would Mufasa say if he only knew...He would banish him immediately. The old law says: no hyenas in the Pridelands. As a "king", Mufasa had to obey those magnificent rules. So chasing and killing hyenas became his favourite activity.

Scar tried to protect hyenas as much as he could. But he knew it's not that easy: they had to hunt. There was nothing on the Elephant Graveyard, so the hyenas had to enter the Pridelands. He was suprised that he spend his time with those idiots...They were moronical, but at the same time funny and...and they were freaks. Just like him.

All his life he spent as an outsider, weirdo. No one liked him, they accepted him but not necessarily wanted to talk to him. He was always seen as the king's younger brother. Always in his shadow. That's what he thought before, but now... Now he knew that the lionesses were just scared of him. So they did whatever he would say.

Scar remembered the day when he got the wound on his left eye. But then he used to be called Taka...

It was shortly after Ahadi's death, Uru died a few days later. Mufasa took the throne, as he always was supposed to. Just after Rafiki, their new shaman, gave him that title, he did something that no one expected.

"I'm your new king" he said with his powerful voice. "But now I need a queen."

The lionesses started to whisper: none of them was ever dating the young king. Taka was in the distance, in his den. He didn't come to bow in front of his _lovely older brother_. He didn't really need to truckle or cheer, that was better for those naive lionesses...He never accepted Mufasa as his king. He could be someone else's king, but never HIS. Though Taka could hear his dumb speech – Mufasa had this loud, idiotical voice. Typical for someone who loved himself. Every single ant on the borders of the land must hear him, or he won't feel fulfilled.

"I choose Sarabi!", yelled Mufasa.

"What?!" gasped Sarabi; Taka first froze, then stood up. No, it couldn't be true. No!

He knew Sarabi. She and her friend Sarafina were the only lionesses that liked him. Sarabi was different. She was friendly, honest, just different. She didn't care about his weakness, about his lower station in the pride. Taka wasn't a sociable lion in general, but he liked to talk with Sarabi. But with the time he realised that he feel something more for her. She was beautiful...He loved everything in her: from her sandy fur and amber eyes to her sense of humor, voice and smile. But he had no courage to tell her.

"As you heard!" yelled Mufasa again. "I will repeat again everyone: from now, Sarabi from the Pridelands is my queen!"

"Never!" shrieked Sarabi.

"You will or I will kill you! I am the king and you must obey me! You will be my queen, you have no way!" growled Mufasa, then she turned around and went into his cave. For a while, the lionesses were quiet. But then Taka heard someone's sobs and Sarabi's voice:

"I will NEVER be his queen!"

He could wait no more. He left his cave and walked into the main chamber. He stood behind Mufasa and said:

"Are you satisfied? She's crying now." Mufasa slowly turned around and growled:

"None of your business, Taka."

"Yes, it's mine! What are you doing, brother? You're trying to force her to marry you?"

"I said SHUT UP, you bastard!"

"Or what, my sweet brother? You will kill me?" Taka came closer to Mufasa and looked into his eyes with ironic smile. "Can't you see NO ONE from your pride is happy?" Mufasa roared and yelled:

"Is it a challenge?! You wanna fight?!"

"Hell no, brother!" Taka rolled his eyes. "No fights, it was funny when we were much younger. I prefer living in peace..." he laughed sarcastically. "I'm just trying to tell you're making a mistake..."

"You're trying to question my rights to the throne?!" growled again Mufasa, extending his claws.

"It's you who try to question it." Then he felt only a pain. The weird force send him to the ground, his bones ached but not as much as his face. He couldn't see: some dark substance flooded his left eye. He hissed then tried to straighten.

"This will teach you not to mess with me...Scar" growled Mufasa and went away.

Taka needed a few minutes to stand up. He tried to wipe the blood with his paw, but it wasn't that easy. He left the cave and, ignoring the shocked screams of lionesses, he stopped in front of the waterhole. He saw a lion with blood all over his face...He was bleeding from a big scar running through his face. Fortunately, Mufasa didn't damage his eye; he could see. But the wound was too deep to disappear that fast...

Since that day he was known as Scar. Sometimes he wondered if the wound isn't the reason why everybody were afraid of him and it made sense...

The next week he watched suffering Sarabi, but he had no courage to talk to her. But he knew he has to do it. He waited for the moment when the lioness will be alone – Mufasa went out to chace the hyenas – so he entered his brother's cave. Sarabi was crying. Scar went closer and asked: "Sarabi? What he's done to you?" The lioness turned around and he saw a few bruises and slashes of a lion's paw on her cheek.

"I...nothing. It's nothing." replied Sarabi.

"No, he hurt you!" yelled Scar.

"I'll do what he wants...or we'll all suffer" said quietly the sandy lioness.

"What?" gasped Scar and snorted: "Didn't you realise that my brother ain't a good person for walks and interesting conversations, and spreading his _I love you_ around?"

"I'm afraid" said Sarabi and suddenly nuzzled into Scar's black mane. Firstly the lion froze, but then he said:

"Run away with me. Come on! We'll find a better place, away from Mufasa."

"No...I can't..." Sarabi moved back and looked up at Scar with surprise.

"What? You wanna stay here and obey this tyrant?" growled Scar.

"Scar...you don't understand. The Pridelands are our home. My family lives here...I couldn't leave them!" Scar put his head down and for a minute he stared at his extended claws. He felt rejected, unimportant. He hoped Sarabi felt something for him...but it seemed she chose the unsafe safety of the land.

"Alright...I understand" he said sarcasticly. "Just remember my proposition, when he'll come back and do worse things to you..." Then he turned around and went away. Mufasa was already coming back, so this situation would see a little "different" as for him.

He tried to forget about Sarabi, but he couldn't. Real love is rather tought to fight. He couldn't just sit and watch what this brutal was doing to her. Now the lioness was bruised and wounded, she never smiled. She became quiet and obedient. The rest of the pride was pretending they can't see all those things, for their own safeness. They didn't spoke to the queen that much: Mufasa forbid it. He wanted to have her just for himself.

But then push came to shove. Mufasa announced that queen is pregnant.

Firstly, Scar couldn't believe it. How Sarabi let him do this? He was almost sure that she didn't want to have cub with someone like Mufasa. He must have forced her to do this. Now Scar felt the impotent rage. He offered her the escape. They could live together outside the Mufasa's prison.

He came to her again. He saw her holding this ugly little hairball and...smiling.

"Sarabi!" he stood in front of her.

"Oh...Scar" her smile was a little bitter.

"He...he..." the blackmaned started, but Sarabi interrupted:

"Forget about it. Now I have son...somebody to love. I'm happy. Really."

"What? After all what he's done to you?!" Scar looked down at the cub with disgust.

"I've just accepted the reality. I'm his queen, and now I'm a mother. I'm...I'm finally happy, Scar." He couldn't believe what he's heard.

"But Sarabi...We could run away...With the cub as well..." he added with growing hatred for Mufasa's offspring. "Sarabi...I just love you..."

"Scar..." he sighed and smiled. "I appreciate how you care about me...It's what I love in you the most...but it's too late. We went different ways. Now I have my life, my duties, my own family to care about."

"Care about?" snorted Scar and looked down on her bruised face. "Did HE care about you?"

"I said, I really appreciate your support" she said with a sharp voice. "But that's enough, Scar, I'm sorry."

"Are you that naive or just that stupid?" hissed Scar with hatred, narrowing his eyes. "How do you think, whose kid is Sarafina's daughter? What about those cute little ones, Kula, Chumvi, Tojo, Tama? Did you ever wonder?"

"What are you trying to say?" asked Sarabi with cold voice.

"Oh, unfortunately I wasn't LUCKY ENOUGH to meet THE LOVE OF MY LIFE to CARE ABOUT" he said sarcastically. "Have I heard good? Are your son and your mate's daughter REALLY bethroted?"

"Stop it! Get out of my cave. NOW!" growled Sarabi.

"As you said, _MADAME_" Scar smiled ironically and left the den.

Yes, he hated them both. Mufasa and his son, Simba. The little prince. The future king. The cute, horribly annoying little idiot. Not that horrible as his father, but yet unbearable. He took him away everything. The throne and Sarabi. He was the last and final thing that tore them apart.

She was HAPPY. It's how she called it. Scar hated her too, but not as much as Mufasa. But that was something different, he was somewhere between love and hate. Because he couldn't let his feelings go, he couldn't fall in love with different lioness.

And in the Pridelands nothing changed. Mufasa was mating with all the lionesses, no one seemed to care about it, at least no one talked about it loudly. He was taking away all the preys, he liked to hit and hurt the lionesses just for fun. He loved to yell at them for no reason. But as for his son, he was the greatest father on the entire planet. The cub loved and idolized him, not seeing all his true nature.

Now Scar was spending almost all his time with hyenas. He was coming back to the Pride Rock just to see Sarabi for a while, check out if she wasn't wounded too much. But at the same time he couldn't take this whole idyll and falsehood.

"Hey, Scar? Are you sleeping or something? I asked if we go for a hunt!" yelled Shenzi. Scar shook his head, quitting thinking about the Pridelands. He was back on the Elephant Graveyard, with his "friends".

"Oh, maybe our little Scar...FELL IN LOVE?!" gasped Banzai; Shenzi and Ed started to laugh crazily.

"SHUT UP!" growled Scar.

"Scar fell in love, Scar fell in love!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

"Ooooh, seems it's unrequited love...Go on, Scar, fight for her! Kill this guy!" yelled again Banzai.

"IDIOTS! Get your jaws shut or you won't have a dinner the whole week!" roared Scar; the hyenas stopped their laughing, now they were only shrugging.

"Come on now" said Scar and stood up. They were heading to the Pridelands to have something to eat. He tried to focus on killing the preys but he still could hear Banzai's voice in his head: _fight for her! Kill this guy!_

"SARABI!" growled Scar. His old love was slowly walking into his way, mocked by the hyenas. They had no respect for the former queen. Just like Scar. He lost all his respect for her the day when she born Simba.

"Yes, Scar?" she asked with neutral voice, looking in his eyes. That made him extremely mad. She rejected him twice. While Mufasa's pride and while his own pride. When she was finally free. But they were no friends anymore.

"Where is your hunting party? They're not doing their job" said Scar, walking nervously. The drought came to the land, they all suffered from hunger and lack of water.

"Scar, there is no food. The herds have moved on" she replied. He couldn't stand this voice anymore. He could feel they all blamed him for the drought. He knew they all wanted Mufasa back and he couldn't understand it. He didn't hit them, he never forced them to mate with them, he didn't want children. He just wanted Sarabi's love.

_I did it for you! _he thought, watching the lioness.

"No. You're just not looking hard enough" he snorted.

"It's _over._ There is nothing left. We have only one choice. We _must_ leave Pride Rock."

_What? _– he laughed in his mind. _Oh my...I told you thousand of times we must leave...But you never wanted to..._

„We're not going _anywhere._" He said. Sarabi quickly understood he wasn't refering to the land's future, but their own past. She opened wide her eyes and yelled:

"Then you have sentenced us to death!"

"Then so be it!" _So you'd choose the slower dying by Mufasa's side?_ , he added in his thoughts.

"You can't do that."

"I'm the king. I can do whatever I want!" Scar replied, grinning. _Now, face it Sarabi! Wasn't that the main motto of your mate?_

"If you were _half_ the king Mufasa was you would nev..."

"I'm _ten_ times the king Mufasa was!" he growled and hit her as much as he could. He watched with shock how the lioness he once loved hits the ground and loses her consiousness. The one part of him screamed _what have you done?! _, the other mocked: _just see, Sarabi, how I'm similar to your Mufasa..._

But he had no time to analise it no more. The thunder hit; Scar saw a big lion with a red mane, standing on the rocks.

„Mufasa? No. You're dead." Scar muttered.

But it wasn't Mufasa. It was his damned offspring.

Scar opened his eyes, feeling dizzy. He barely could stand on his own paws. He felt weak, although he noticed he feels no pain anymore.

"Am I dead?" thought the lion. "Or alive? Where I am?" He looked around and he realised that he's back in the Pridelands, under the Pride Rock, where the hyenas...killed him? So why could he still see, hear, walk?

...But he couldn't feel. He couldn't feel pain in his wounds, the flames that were touching his paws didn't burn him. It was...against the Circle! Against the nature! How was this possible?

He came closer to the small pool of water and he saw his reflection: he had no wounds or burns at all. Except for this one on his eye...

He was dead.

Scar felt both weird and funny. He wanted to laugh himself. It was so...ridiculous...so that's how the death looks like...

Of course, no one could see him. He could take adventage of it. He came closer to the Pride Rock. Scar saw the hyenas escaping from the Pridelands and he felt growing hate. How could they leave him?! He thought they were his friends...at least, they seemed loyal and usable...But they misunderstood everything he meant to, as always.

"Is it any tradition or something? Have I always, even after my death, to be surrounded by idiots?" thought Scar with irritation. Then he heard the lion's roar. Simba. His little stupid nephew was standing on the Pride Rock, and, of course, the lionesses were delighted, finally they had real KING, who would erase the drought in some MAGICAL way... And Sarabi was there too. Proud of her son, the living evidence of the fact that Mufasa still was there around, still had his power... "It was your way...you're just like them, Sarabi, I thought you're not that stupid...You choose your dumb way. Good for you." Thought Scar and turned around. He had nothing more to watch.

Hey, what said Ahadi? All the great kings from the past are now in the stars or something? Well, he actually USED TO be the king... Scar raised his paw and stood in the air. He was climbing the invisible stairs, not flying but going up, leaving his home behind. After a little while the scenery changed: now the big, dark and cold matter and the dots of light were surrounding him. He saw a silhouette of a big lion. Scar smiled meanly nad said sarcastically:

"Good mornig, my lovely brother...Or evening?"

Mufasa looked at him with disgust.

"Not that good as for some ones...For you at least." he said, glaring at his younger brother.

"You won...are you satisfied?" snorted the blackmaned lion. "Now, you've got back everything. The throne, the memory, and Sarabi..."

"She was never yours" laughed Mufasa. "She could come to you and complain or even do other things...but she's always been mine and she knows she'll be mine forever."

"The one thing that makes you funny" replied Scar "is that you always can't seem to have enough. The more you have, the more you get. Often with no permission."

"Such a great sense of humor, as always, bro..." Mufasa smiled with scorn. "But see, I don't have enough time to joke with you. You know, I would see my son's coronation..."

"Do you know, Mufasa, that your son is now getting married with his little sister?" said Scar, narrowing eyes. "But no little incesticide could spoil your mood?"

"That one was so funny, I love when you tell jokes" laughed ironically Mufasa. "But excuse me, I have no time."

"Go on, watch your little hairball..." snorted Scar. "What's your problem?"

"Hm...guess the problem is you. You forgot about one thing...The skies are opened for _the great_ _kings _of the past..."

"You're trying to tell me something or just to share your moron opinions?"

"Oh, my opinions...That's the decision of Mohatu, Ahadi...of a Circle of Life in general, my brother. No places left..."

"Don't worry about me, sweetie" snorted Scar and turning around. "I'll find better place...But tell me one thing. How COULD YOU get into the skies? After all you have done?!"

"I'll tell you my little secret..." Mufasa came closer and whispered: "The Circle of Life."

"Good for you." First Scar froze, but then he smiled ironicaly. He started to leave the skies, going down back to the Pridelands.

He didn't know where he would go now, but he didn't care. He still felt Mufasa's satisfied look on his back, but he didn't turn around no more.


End file.
